The Synchronicity of Starlings & the Magic of Unity

By Ariana Strozzi Mazzucchi, Dec 2023

I’ve been deeply moved these last few weeks to witness the murmuration of Starlings. It started one fall afternoon in November just after the thanksgiving holiday.  In the distance this whirling maze of birds like a black cloud moving in the sky, shifting left, then right, dropping, whirling, and spinning in the sky. A cloud moving in and out through spirals and dark and light shadowy shapes.

‘How can this be so?’ I pondered as I ran to get my camera to capture this amazing maneuver choreographed by thousands of starlings, flying en mass in and out of the sky’s backdrop. Within seconds they had traveled between towns and were now in the far distance.

I sat on a rock step and watched their shifty shadowy shapes move north. How do they do that? I mean how do they move with such incredible accuracy? Who, as in which bird, starts the dance? They move so soft, so swiftly, their synchronized  movements seem impossible in their rapid spontaneous shifts and shapes, a dark shadow of a horse, no, a cow, no a mesmerizing mob of dark birds capturing my sensuous wonder.

And then I think what is the message? Is this a metaphor of now? Are we being invited into a dance of timeless faith, no time to think too much, no time to organize or plan? Just untethered swift shape shifting flight. Up down, swooping, rising. No thought. Just freedom to move so catchy that all the others move too. No debates, no challenges from others, just free flowing movement like a wet brush of black ink on the soft reception of rice paper. The ink now moving into the paper forming a story that awakens the lonely  heart.

The starlings, sometimes judged for being rascals of nature, are still vital members to the health of the environmental economy. The metaphor of thousands of starlings flying in unity invites our intuition to be the guide of change. Starlings are the only species of birds who do  this. They  survive in great numbers because of the unity of their community. Their black, now grey, now faintly seen silhouette on the silky afternoon sky reminds anyone who notices their intricate dance is a member too of the constantly changing energetic flow of living this one life.

Just as I thought they had gone, I heard an unusual sound in the front pasture. I ran through the house and stepped onto the front porch, just in time to feel the rush of thousands of little black wings pounding the sky above me. The underbelly of the wispy birds sparkled like thousands of rainbow crystals. Their irredescent speckled feathers so perfectly designed.

I opened my heart and spread my arms to the sky as if I too could just lift off and join them. A dream as illusive as a child running toward the bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow. I was forever changed. I felt blessed that I was offered this amazing sight, this amazing rush of unity in the air above me. Weeks later I am still allowing the mystery of their lesson to unfold.

Opportunities and Contemplations:

The lesson of the murmuration of starlings is an opportunity to perceive through the mysterious lens of energy fields to find new perspectives. The opportunity:

Allow your curiosity to ponder ‘the unity of community’. Comm-unity. Comm meaning ‘with’, ‘together’. Unity-being a ‘oneness’, as in ‘the energy of the group is unified giving a sense of oneness versus separate individuals’. 

Where is your community, your place of connection? Who is in your community? Who are you in this community? What does the energy field of your community feel like? How do you feel energetically when you are in your community? What would you like to be different?

First step may be to come back into unity with yourself, your own oneness. Are you feeling unified in who you are being? Is your physical energy balanced? Imagine all the cells in your body working together in a unified way like the thousands of starling flying effortlessly together to create the whole. Are you allowing the energy of your emotions, your feelings and your imagination to flow, swoop,  and soar, freely? Allow the range of emotions to flow and change versus becoming stagnant.

Choice follows awareness, meaning that the act of noticing your emotions, is the first step in being able to choose how you want to be and respond to conflict, chaos and situations of discord. Do you want to fly above, with, solo or in a murmuration of starlings?